Battery module with cooling cartridge and battery system thereof

ABSTRACT

The invention provides a battery module with cooling cartridge and battery system thereof. The cooling cartridge is utilized to be disposed between the battery units stacked in a single axis. The supporting portion of the cooling cartridge is directly contacted in a large area to the current collecting sheet of the battery unit. And the wing portions, extended from the two sides of the supporting portion, are directly contacted to the inner sidewalls of the metal housing. Therefore, a large-area heat dissipating path for the battery cell is provided, and the performance and stability of the battery cell are greatly improved.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority to Taiwanese Patent Application110109698 filed in the Taiwanese Patent Office on Mar. 18, 2021, theentire contents of which is being incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a battery module, in particular to abattery module and the battery system thereof with the coolingcartridge.

Related Art

In recent years, with the rapid development of various portableelectronic products, electric vehicles, power storage stations, there isa high demand for energy storage devices with both high energy storagedensity and environmental protection. The ion secondary batteries arethe optimal solution. Further, various secondary batteries such aslithium ion secondary batteries, magnesium ion secondary batteries, andsodium ion secondary batteries have been developed. In practice, aplurality of battery units stacked and connected to form the batterycell is the most common method. The sufficient capacity is achieved tobe applied for the various devices.

The heat dissipation method of the conventional battery cells is to usean additional thermal conductive metal plate/block to contact a bottomsurface formed by several stacked battery units, or use an internalmetal flow channel that can flow through liquid or gas to remove theheat generated by the battery cell during charging and discharging. Forexample, as disclosed in CN205992578U, the battery units are disposedvertically one by one to form the battery cell. Due to the terminals ofthe battery units are on the top, the thermal conductive metalplate/block will be disposed on the bottom of the battery units.However, due to the battery units are disposed vertically, the thermalconductive metal plate/block only can contact the bottom ends of therespective battery units. The contact area of the respective batteryunits is very small. The heat dissipation efficiency is very poor, andthe cooling effect is not uniform.

Besides, due to the thermal conductive metal plate/block or the internalmetal flow channel is added, the overall volume of the battery module isincreased. The structure of the whole battery module will become morecomplicated. Also, the assembling process will become more complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a primary objective of this invention to provide a battery modulewith cooling cartridge and battery system thereof. The cooling cartridgeis directly contacted in a large area to the current collecting sheet ofthe battery unit to form a large-area heat dissipating path for thebattery cell.

It is another objective of this invention to provide a battery modulewith cooling cartridge and battery system thereof. The joining portionsof two adjacent battery modules are arranged to be misaligned todecrease the overall volume of the battery system.

In order to implement the abovementioned, this invention discloses abattery module with cooling cartridge, which includes a battery cell, ametal housing and at least one cooling cartridge. The battery cell isformed by a plurality of battery units stacked along with a single axis.Each battery unit is an independent and complete module, and includestwo current collecting sheets and an electrochemical system disposedtherebetween. The cooling cartridge includes a supporting portion and atleast one wing portion extended from an edge of the supporting portion.The supporting portion of the cooling cartridge is disposed between anytwo of the battery units and contacts with the current collecting sheetswith the same polarity of the two battery units. The wing portioncontacts to an inner sidewall of the metal housing. Therefore, thelarge-area heat dissipating path for the battery cell is provided, andthe performance and stability of the battery cell are greatly improved.

Moreover, this invention discloses a battery system composed of aplurality of above-mentioned battery modules. A joining portion isextended outwards and formed by the upper case and the lower case of themetal housing. And the joining portions of two adjacent battery modulesare misaligned to decrease the overall volume of the battery system. Thegap forming by the joining portions serves as a cooling channel.Therefore, additional heat dissipation system of the battery system doesnot need to further reduce the overall volume of the battery system.

Further scope of applicability of the present invention will becomeapparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, itshould be understood that the detailed description and specificexamples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, aregiven by way of illustration only, since various changes andmodifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from thedetailed description given hereinbelow illustration only, and thus arenot limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIGS. 1A and 1B are schematic diagrams of an embodiments of the batterymodule with cooling cartridge of this invention.

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of an embodiments of the battery unit ofthe battery module with cooling cartridge of this invention.

FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of another embodiments of the batteryunit of the battery module with cooling cartridge of this invention.

FIG. 2C is an exploded diagram of an embodiments of the battery unit ofthe battery module with cooling cartridge of this invention.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are schematic diagrams of an embodiments of the batterymodule with cooling cartridge of this invention.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are schematic diagrams of another embodiments of thebattery module with cooling cartridge of this invention.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are schematic diagrams of another embodiments of thebattery module with cooling cartridge of this invention.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic diagrams of another embodiments of thebattery module with cooling cartridge of this invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an embodiments of the battery systemcomposed of the battery modules with cooling cartridge of thisinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will be described with respect to particularembodiments and with reference to certain drawings but the invention isnot limited thereto but only by the claims. Any reference signs in theclaims shall not be construed as limiting the scope. The drawingsdescribed are only schematic and are non-limiting. In the drawings, thesize of some of the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn on scalefor illustrative purposes.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the generalinventive concept. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and“the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless thecontext clearly indicates otherwise. Unless otherwise defined, all terms(including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the samemeaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art towhich example embodiments belong. It will be further understood thatterms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should beinterpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning inthe context of the relevant art and should not be interpreted in anidealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases“in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughoutthis specification are not necessarily all referring to the sameembodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features, structures orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would beapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this disclosure, inone or more embodiments.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that theterms “installation”, “connected”, and “disposed” are to be understoodbroadly, and may be fixed or detachable, for example, can be mechanicalor electrical, can be connected directly or indirectly, through anintermediate medium, which can be the internal connection between twocomponents. The specific meanings of the above terms in the presentinvention can be understood in the specific circumstances by thoseskilled in the art.

Please refer to FIGS. 1A and 1B. The invention discloses a batterymodule 1 with cooling cartridge, which includes a battery cell 11, ametal housing 30 and at least one cooling cartridge 40. The battery cell11 is formed by a plurality of battery units 20 stacked along with asingle axis. As shown in FIG. 1A or 1B, the battery units 20 are stackedalong with a vertical Z-axis and connected together in parallel.Moreover, the battery units 20 can also be connected in series or inboth series and parallel. Each battery unit 20 is an independent andcomplete module.

Please refer to FIGS. 2A and 2C. The battery cell 11 is composed of thebattery units 20 with independent, sealed and complete module. Thebattery unit 20 includes two current collecting sheets 24, 25, anelectrochemical system 201 and a sealing frame 26. The electrochemicalsystem 201 includes a separator 21, two active material layers 22, 23and an electrolyte system impregnated or mixed in the active materiallayers 22, 23. The separator 21 may be a porous lamination formed bypolymers or the glass fibers, or the separator 21 may be a ceramicseparator, which is stacked or sintered by ceramic materials, with poresto permit ion migrations. The pores are through holes or ant holes, i.e.non-straight through holes. Moreover, the separator 21 may be the porouslamination with a ceramic particles reinforcing layer, or a separatormixing with ceramic particles and ion-conductive polymers. The size ofthe ceramic particles are nanometer scale, micrometer scale or mixingwith at least two larger different scale, such as mixing with nanometerscale and micrometer scale. The material of the ceramic particles isTiO₂, Al₂O₃, SiO₂, alkylated ceramic particulates, or an oxide-basedsolid electrolyte, such as LLZO (lithium lanthanum zirconium oxide,Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂) or LATP(Li_(1+x)Al_(x)Ti_(2−x)(P₄)₃). Further, the ceramicmaterial may be mixed with the ceramic insulating materials and theoxide-based solid electrolyte. The separator 21, in case of beingstacked by ceramic materials, may further include a polymer adhesiveused to bind these ceramic particles. The polymer adhesive may bepolyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyvinylidene fluorideco-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP), Polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE), acrylicacid glue, epoxy resin, polyethylene oxide (PEO), polyacrylonitrile(PAN), and polyimide (PI).

The electrolyte system is impregnated or mixed in the active materiallayers 22, 23. The electrolyte system is a gel electrolyte, a liquidelectrolyte, a solid electrolyte or a combinations thereof. The activematerial layers 22, 23 are separated by the separator 21 to form theelectrochemical system 201. Therefore, the processes that the chemicalenergy is converted into electrical energy, i.e. discharging, and theelectrical energy is converted into chemical energy, i.e. charging, arecarried out. The ion migration and transport are achieved. The electriccharges are transmitted via the current collecting sheets 24, 25. Thematerials of the current collecting sheets 24, 25 are copper (Cu),Aluminum (Al), or nickel (Ni), tin (Sn), silver (Ag), gold (Au), or analloy comprised of at least one of the foregoing metals.

Also, the two current collecting sheets 24, 25 and the sealing frame 26serve as a package structure of the battery unit 10. The sealing frame26 is made of the polymer material. As long as it can be adhered to thesurfaces of the current collecting sheets 24, 25 and is durable to theelectrolyte system, there do not have any particular requirements forthe polymer material, but the thermosetting resin is preferred. Forexample, the materials of the sealing frame 26 include the epoxy,polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyurethane (PU), thermoplasticpolyimide (TPI), silicone, acrylic resin and/or ultraviolet light curingadhesive. The sealing frame 26 is disposed between the edges of the twocurrent collecting sheets 24, 25 and surrounds the electrochemicalsystem 201, i.e. the two active material layers 22, 23 and the separator21 disposed therebetween. Also, the sealing frame 26 adheres the twocurrent collecting sheets 24, 25 and seals the electrolyte systemtherebetween to avoid leakage. Therefore, due to seal by the sealingframe 26, the electrolyte system does not contact with the electrolytesystem of another battery unit. For example, i.e. the electrolyte systemdo not circulate between any adjacent battery units 20. In other words,the electrolyte system only circulates within respective battery units10. Therefore, the two current collecting sheets 24, 25 and the sealingframe 26 serve as the package structure of the battery unit 20 to forman independent, sealed and complete module, which can generate powerindependently.

To enhance adhesion of the sealing frame 26, in case of the silicone isutilized, the sealing frame 26 may include two modified silicone layers261, 262 and a silicone layer 263 disposed between the two modifiedsilicone layers 261, 262. Please see FIG. 2B, the modified siliconelayers 261, 262 are modified by adjusting a proportion ofcondensation-type silicone and addition-type silicone comparing to thesilicone layer 263 to enhance adhesion for different material, i.e. thematerial of the current collecting sheets 24, 25. Therefore, theadhesion between the interfaces of the current collecting sheets 24, 25and the sealing frame 26 is enhanced. The overall appearance is morecomplete and the production yield is improved.

Please refer to FIGS. 1A and 1B, the metal housing 30 includes an uppercase 31 and a lower case 32. An electrically insulating plate 33 isdisposed between the upper case 31 and the lower case 32 to avoid theupper case 31 be electrically connected to the lower case 32. In otherwords, the upper case 31 and the lower case 32 are electricallyinsulated from one another. The electrically insulating plate 33 is madeof electrically insulating materials and may be an O-ring or a washer.The metal housing 30 is utilized to encapsulate or seal the battery cell11 inside. The upper case 31 and the lower case 32 are electricallyconnected to the outputs of the battery cell 11 with different polarityrespectively to form a positive terminal and a negative terminal. Asshown in the figures, the positive terminal is formed by the upper case31 and the negative terminal is formed by the lower case 32. The coolingcartridge 40 is inserted and disposed between any two of the batteryunits 20 to provide a large-area heat dissipating path. Please refer toFIG. 3A, the cooling cartridge 40 includes a supporting portion 41 andat least one wing portion 42 extended from an edge of the supportingportion 41. As shown in this figure, two wing portions 42 are extendedfrom two opposite edges of the supporting portion 41 to form a U-shapedcooling cartridge 40. Also, please refer to FIG. 3B, there may have fourwing portions 42 extended from all the edges of the supporting portion41. The shape and amount for the wing portions 42 in the figures areused for illustrative purpose only, but not limited to these shape andamount.

Please see FIGS. 1A and 3A, the cooling cartridge 40 is made of the highthermal conductive metal materials. The area of the supporting portion41 of the cooling cartridge 40 is slightly greater than the area of anyone of the current collecting sheets 24, 25 of the battery units 20.Therefore, the battery unit 20 is supported on the supporting portion 41of the cooling cartridge 40, and the supporting portion 41 of thecooling cartridge 42 is directly contacted in a large area to thecurrent collecting sheet 24, 25 of the battery unit 20. The wing portion42 is vertically extended, such as in an upward direction in the figure,and directly contacts to the inner sidewall of the metal housing 30,such as the upper case 31 in the figure. Therefore, the thermal energygenerated by the battery cell 11 during charging and discharging isdissipated to the outside through the cooling cartridge 40 and the metalhousing 30. The battery units 20 are supported by the supporting portion41 of the cooling cartridge 40 via the current collecting sheets 24, 25.Therefore, the contact areas thereof are very large. Also, the wingportions 42 of the cooling cartridges 40 are vertically extended andextending upward or downward. Therefore, the wing portions 42 arecontacted with the inner sidewall of the metal housing 30 by theirsurfaces with largest areas, i.e. not by the end or edge surface.Therefore, the heat dissipation efficiency of the cooling cartridge 40is very well.

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 1A, the battery units 20 are stackedvertically to form the battery cell 11. The both sides of the supportingportion 41 of the cooling cartridge 40 are contacted with the batteryunits 20. The cooling cartridge 40 is electrically conductive.Therefore, the both sides of the supporting portion 41 of the coolingcartridge 40 have to be contacted with the current collecting sheet 24,25 with the same polarity of the battery unit 20 and the wing portions42 of the cooling cartridge 40 have to contact the upper case 31 or thelower case 32 with the same polarity. In other words, the coolingcartridge 40 can be used as an electrical conductor. Also, anelectrically insulating layer 401 is disposed on an inner side of thewing portion 401 to avoid the wing portion 42 being contact with theside surface of the battery unit 20.

Take the embodiment of FIG. 1A for example, the cooling cartridge 40 isdisposed in the positive side, i.e. contacted to the inner sidewall ofthe upper case 31. The both sides of the supporting portion 41 of thecooling cartridge 40 are contacted with the current collecting sheet 24,25 with the same polarity. Also, the battery units 20 are contacted toeach other with a back-to-front stacking relationship. The connectingplates 51 are used to connect the current collecting sheet 24, 25 withthe same polarity to form a parallel connection arrangement. On theother hand, please refer to FIG. 1B, the cooling cartridge 40 may bedisposed in the negative side. The arrangement and connections aresimilar, so that the repeated description is omitted.

Please see FIGS. 4A and 4B, there may also have more than one coolingcartridges 40 within one side, either the upper case 31 or the lowercase 32. As shown, there have two cooling cartridges 40 within thepositive side of the upper case 31 or the negative side of the lowercase 32 respectively. The two sets of the battery units 20, which areconnected in parallel, are connected via the connecting plates 51 toform a parallel connection arrangement. The connecting plate 51 ispassed through the side without wing portion 42 of the cooling cartridge40. As shown in FIG. 3A, the connecting plats 51 may pass through thetop right side or the bottom left side. Also, in case of the coolingcartridge 40 has the wing portions 42 of all the four sides, such asshown in FIG. 3B, one of the wing portions 42 may have a slot to allowthe connecting plat 51 to pass through. The amount and positions for thecooling cartridge 40 in the figures are used for illustrative purposeonly, but not limited to these amount and positions.

Also, excepting for the aforementioned stacking in the same orientation,the battery units 20 can be stacked in both series and parallelconnections. Please refer to FIG. 5A, the battery units 20 are stackedin both series and parallel connections. Three battery units 20 areformed a group, and each group has a respective cooling cartridge 40.Within the group, the three battery units 20 are arranged inback-to-front stacking relationship. The connecting plates 51 is alsoadapted to form a parallel connection within the group. Then, threegroups are stacked in the same orientation to form the series connectionoutside the groups. Please be noted, the parallel connection within thegroup means that the three battery units 20 within this group areconnected in parallel. And, the series connection outside the groupsmeans that the three groups are connected in series. For the lowestgroup, it is located at the negative side, i.e. the lower case 32.Therefore, the location and the orientation of the cooling cartridge 40is different from that of the other groups. Moreover, please refer toFIG. 5B, there have four groups in the metal housing 30. Two groups arelocated at the positive side, i.e. the upper case 31, and another twogroups are located at the negative side, i.e. the lower case 32. Theconnections are the same with the above-mentioned connections, so thatthe repeated description is omitted.

On the other hand, please refer to FIGS. 6A and 6B, three battery units20 are formed a group. And the three battery units 20 are stacked in thein the same orientation to form the series connection within this group.Then, three groups are arranged in back-to-front stacking relationship,and the connecting plates 51 is adapted to form the parallel connectionoutside the groups. Furthermore, the battery units 20 are stacked alongwith a single axis to form the battery cell 20. The arrangements are notlimited to the above-mention arrangements.

Please refer to FIG. 7 , the battery system of this invention iscomposed of a plurality of above-mentioned battery modules 1. Theelectrically insulating plate 33 is disposed between the upper case 31and the lower case 32. The upper case 31 and the lower case 32 areelectrically insulated from one another. A joining portion 301 isextended outwards and formed by the upper case 31 and the lower case 32of the metal housing 30 and the electrically insulating plate 33. Thejoining portions 301 of two adjacent battery modules 1 are misaligned todecrease the overall volume of the battery system. Also, the volumetricenergy density is increased. Excepting for the large-area heatdissipating path provided by the cooling cartridge 40 for the batterycell 11, the gap forming by the joining portions 301 outsides of thebattery units 1 serves as a cooling channel 71. Therefore, additionalheat dissipation system of the battery system does not need to furtherreduce the overall volume of the battery system. Also, there only havetwo battery modules 1 in this figure. In practice, there may have morebattery modules 1 to be arranged in horizontal direction according torequirements.

Accordingly, the invention provides a battery module with coolingcartridge and battery system thereof. The cooling cartridge is directlycontacted in a large area to the current collecting sheet of the batteryunit to form a large-area heat dissipating path for the battery cell.The thermal energy generated by the battery cell is dissipated tomaintain the optimized performance of the battery cell. In the batterysystem composed of a plurality of above-mentioned battery modules, thejoining portions of two adjacent battery modules are misaligned todecrease the overall volume of the battery system. The gap forming bythe joining portions serves as a cooling channel. Therefore, additionalheat dissipation system of the battery system does not need to furtherreduce the overall volume of the battery system. Besides, the coolingcartridge of the invention can also be used as an electrical conductorto transmit electricity between the stacked battery units and case.

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same maybe varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as adeparture from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all suchmodifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intendedto be included within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A battery module with cooling cartridge,comprising: a battery cell, including a plurality of battery unitsstacked along with a single axis, each battery unit including: twocurrent collecting sheets, disposed in parallel to each other andserving as a package structure of the battery unit; and anelectrochemical system, disposed between the two current collectingsheets and including an electrolyte system, wherein the electrolytesystem does not contact with the electrolyte system of another batteryunit; a metal housing, encapsulating the battery cell inside andincluding an upper case and a lower case, wherein the upper case and thelower case are electrically insulated from one another, and the uppercase and the lower case are electrically connected to outputs of thebattery cell with different polarity respectively to form a positiveterminal and a negative terminal; and at least one cooling cartridge,including a supporting portion and at least one wing portion extendedfrom an edge of the supporting portion, wherein the supporting portionis disposed between two of the battery units and contacts with thecurrent collecting sheets with the same polarity of the two batteryunits, and the wing portion contacts to an inner sidewall of the metalhousing.
 2. The battery module with cooling cartridge of claim 1,wherein an electrically insulating layer is disposed on an inner side ofthe wing portion to avoid the wing portion being contact with a sidesurface of the battery unit.
 3. The battery module with coolingcartridge of claim 1, wherein an electrically insulating plate isdisposed between the upper case and the lower case to avoid the uppercase being electrically connected to the lower case.
 4. The batterymodule with cooling cartridge of claim 1, wherein an area of thesupporting portion is the cooling cartridge is greater than an area ofany one of the current collecting sheets of the battery units.
 5. Thebattery module with cooling cartridge of claim 1, wherein theelectrolyte system is a gel electrolyte, a liquid electrolyte, a solidelectrolyte or a combination thereof.
 6. The battery module with coolingcartridge of claim 1, wherein the electrolyte system only circulateswithin respective battery units, and only charge transfer is occurredbetween adjacent two of the battery units without occurringelectrochemical reactions therebetween.
 7. The battery module withcooling cartridge of claim 1, wherein the electrochemical systemcomprises: two active material layers, being in contact with the twocurrent collecting sheets respectively; a separator, disposed betweenthe two active material layers; and a sealing frame, disposed betweenthe two current collecting sheets and surrounding the electrochemicalsystem.
 8. The battery module with cooling cartridge of claim 7, whereinthe sealing frame includes a silicone layer and two modified siliconelayers disposed on two sides of the silicone layer.
 9. A battery systemcomposed of a plurality of battery modules of claim 1, wherein a joiningportion is extended outwards and formed by the upper case and the lowercase of the metal housing, and wherein the joining portions of twoadjacent battery modules are misaligned.